


Idyll

by Viola_Laterra



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: During Canon, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 15:04:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17469842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viola_Laterra/pseuds/Viola_Laterra
Summary: Shulk is reunited with Fiora.(Scene from the game. written Aug 2015)





	Idyll

Shulk's hand twitched. Was it a dream? Falling... it seemed like forever. Just like the dream he'd had as a child... falling...

At length, he felt the gritty texture of sand against his face and arms. He stirred, pushing himself up, and found himself on a beach. It was... unreal.

Memories came rushing back. Fiora... well, the Mechon with Fiora inside it, anyway, had fallen from the Mechonis' blade, and he had flung himself after her. She must be here somewhere. He struggled to get up. As he stood, a tad unsteadily, he pulled out the Monado and felt how its energy crackled and sparked. Just as unsteady as he felt. Egil had done serious damage to it in the battle. He didn't know if he would be able to use it now if he needed to defend himself or Fiora, when he found her. Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it, he thought, slinging it onto his back again and beginning to look around in earnest. She must be here somewhere. Eventually he saw the wreckage of her mechon, just at the water's edge, waves lapping at it lazily. He could just see her still inside it at this distance. He took off running in that direction.

He was winded, injured... but he forced himself to reach her, to pull her limp body out of the machine and lay it on the sand, propped up against a rock. She was so heavy in her mechanical body... what had they done to her?

She was breathing, though. That simple observation triggered a wave of relief. Not only did it mean that she was alive, but that... she was still human enough to breathe. He watched for a moment, fussing over her arms and hands, adjusting her head, trying to figure out what to do to try to wake her. Eventually he noticed that her lips were dry, mumbled, 'she needs water!' and stood, shakily, casting about for fresh water. 

If he'd had more time, maybe he would have noticed the beauty of the beach, the almost idyllic quiet of the place, and the saltiness of the air. If he hadn't been frantic about the potential of having Fiora back, with the anxiety about whether she would remember him dancing around in the back of his mind, he might have wondered at being on the shore of what must be the boundless ocean.

But instead he saw, in the distance, what looked like a spring. He jogged up to the water, filling a canteen, barely noting the lush vegetation around what looked like mechanical ruins, and turned back to the beach, the rock, and his childhood friend.

Reaching her, he knelt, holding the top of the canteen, full of water, up to her dry lips. a little water trickled into her mouth, he saw, but he didn't see her swallow. He put the water away, and sat back for a moment. What now? She was so beautiful, so real, laying there in front of him. Not a dream, or a daydream. All at once, all ability to decide or reason a strategy to help her or treat her or figure out what to do next in their struggle crumbled as he looked at her. The gravity of all they had been through, and the enormity of having her back again, in some form at least, overwhelmed him, and he bent down and kissed her. He'd never dared to think of doing such a thing, before. He'd always loved her, of course, if he admitted it to himself, but having lost her... he didn't know how she felt about him, but... he was so deeply grateful that she was alive, and in that moment so completely in love with her, that he just didn't bother to worry about whether it was appropriate.

He only set his lips on hers for a moment, pausing there, feeling that they were moist now, and then pulled back, eyes partly closed, feeling close to tears. He didn't see her open her eyes, but he did hear her say, "I don't believe it... my first kiss."

He looked down, and she was smiling up at him. "Fiora! Do you... do you remember me?"

"Of course I remember you, Shulk," she said, and reached up to stroke his hair. He didn't care that her hand was gloved in some kind of mechanical apparatus. 'Oh, Fiora!" he cried, and threw his arms around her, holding her tightly. She was weak, but she held him back. He didn't know how long they stayed like that, but it was a perfect moment. Different from the treasured and somewhat worn perfect moment he'd recalled countless times, sitting in the overlook park, feeling the breeze and eating the food she'd made... so many times, he'd taken that memory out, replayed it tenderly and meticulously, and put it away again. He had never expected to be able to make any new moments with her. Several tears slid down his cheeks as he gripped her and she stroked his hair.

At length, he sat up, and helped her up. They explored this strange place, talking about all of the different things they'd experienced... she tried to describe what it was like to die, and to be brought back, and to share her heart and body with another person. Shulk took exception to that, until she emphatically dissuaded him of that opinion. "I think she's a good person. I can feel that she wants to keep our world safe. She saved you, Shulk, because she knew that's what I wanted." He relented.

It was so strange to be with her again... because in some ways, it was just the same as it had always been. But in other ways they were both different. Time and experience had grown up between them. But there were moments where there were no boundaries where there had been boundaries before. Strange. But still wonderful. Shulk wandered the beach and the mechanical ruins with her, in something of a daze. That was why he blamed himself for not being on his toes when the mechon attacked.


End file.
